Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I am directing my comments through the chair and I am directly relevant. That is why I just talked about the red tape impact on small business. I cannot see how that is not relevant, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am mindful of the fact that the government has made such a mess of this bill and maybe one of the reasons is that it has had five small business ministers in five years and four small business ministers in the last 15 months. That might be related to the fact that hardly anyone in the parliamentary Labor Party has ever worked in small business—hardly anyone. Has anyone in the Labor Party worked in small business? I cannot hear a word. No. They would not know what the red tape burden is. I can tell you what the red tape burden is: it costs money; it costs jobs. Many submissions to the House economics committee inquiry argued that the de minimis threshold should be raised and that doing so would not put revenue at risk. It would result in large savings in compliance cost and reduce complexity, especially for small- to medium-sized enterprises.

We are just asking why the government is so committed to this bill. Why is it so rushed? We are concerned that the design and drafting of this schedule may have been rushed. It requires further testing. That is consistent with the submissions from the Corporate Tax Association, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and the Tax Institute. For example, on page 7 of its submission to the committee, the Tax Institute said: 'We are concerned that the bill as currently drafted would not yield many of the lauded simplicity and certainty benefits and will increase the compliance burden, especially and disproportionately on small to medium enterprises.' Is anyone listening? These are submissions that are saying that this will mean more red tape for small- and medium-sized business and that you have got it wrong.

We find it difficult to fathom how the financial impact of this schedule is estimated at zero extra tax dollars per year whereas the financial impact of schedule 1, relating to general anti-avoidance provisions, is expected to prevent the loss of over a billion dollars per year. Where does that number come from? It has been plucked out of the air. We have an impressive record in relation to tax simplification. We have an impressive record in relation to tax reduction. But it is the Labor Party that is introducing bills while refusing to facilitate proper scrutiny, and they just keep getting it wrong: exhibit A, the mining tax; exhibit B, the carbon tax; exhibit C, the 27 new or increased taxes Labor has introduced. We will oppose this bill because it is bad legislation and the format in the House is a disaster.

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